Jim Fregosi and O.C. came of age together

Feb. 14, 2014

Updated Feb. 16, 2014 7:24 p.m.

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In this Oct. 4, 1979 photo, Angels manager Jim Fregosi thinks things over in the dugout during ninth inning of the game that saw his team come from a 9-1 deficit only to lose the second in a row of the American League Championship Series, 9-8 to the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore. JOE GIZA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By the time this 1968 photo was taken, Jim Fregosi was established as the Angels best position player and an All Star regular. He came of age during a decade when Orange County doubled in population, and orange groves were swapped out for housing tracts. GB, AP

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Vintage Fregosi: This 1964 Topps baseball card shows an in-his-prime player who became the first modern superstar to rise in Orange County. COURTESY OF TOPPS

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Fregosi, right, played in six All-Star Games with the Angels. In 1967 he posed for this photo with fellow All Star, Boston's Rico Petrocelli. REGISTER FILE PHOTO

"Now they're Angels - Shortstop Jim Fregosi gives a few pointers (on batting that is) to Disneyland Ambassador Marcia Miner and her pal Goofy during warmups for the Angels-Disneyland "Double Header" on April 15. Fans can attend the Angels-Cleveland Saturday afternoon gmae and a special Angels party at Disneyland from 8pm to 1am for a single admission price. " (Archive clip from California Angels Special Section- Sunday, April 9, 1967.) FILE: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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New York Mets star Willie Mays, whose baseball future has been the object of much speculation while he's been sidelined with a shoulder injury, holds the court with some teammates on May 20. From left in the dressing room of New York's Shea Stadium: Jim Fregosi, Mays, Jon Matlack and Rusty Staub. The Mets, whose game was rained out Sunday, were scheduled to meet the St. Louis Cardinals in New York on May 21, 1973, under the lights. HARRY HARRIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

To the kids who grew up between the orange groves, to the kids who rode their bikes down Katella to the Big A, to the 1960s Angels fans, he was bigger than astronauts.

He was bigger than Gene Autry or John Wayne. He was bigger than Walt Disney. He was the first home-grown, heroic, Orange County rock star ballplayer.

He was No. 11 and he played in Orange County for 11 years.

Jim Fregosi, an original Angel and perennial Most Valuable Player candidate, was so popular that he couldn’t exit through Gate 5 in the old configuration of Angel Stadium. There were too many autograph seekers settling for signatures from Andy Messersmith or Jim Spencer. Fregosi had to sneak out another way, or he might never have gotten home.

Orange County and Jim Fregosi came of age together.

“On Christmas in 1970, I opened my presents and my mother had hand-sewn a little Angels uniform for me with the number 11 on it,” said Stuart Glenn Matthews, a lifelong Angel fan who grew up in Orange and now lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.

“I was so proud to wear that. It's probably still my favorite Christmas present ever. I rode my bike around Orange wearing it and the other kids were so jealous of my home-made Jim Fregosi jersey. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.”

Matthews was 5 the first time he saw Fregosi play.

“It was a Tuesday night and my Dad had bought cheap-seat tickets for a dollar a piece,” Matthews said.

“Even though I didn't know much about baseball at 5 years old, I could tell that this guy my Dad kept talking about, Jim Fregosi, was the best player on the field. Sure enough, Jim Fregosi hit a triple off the wall and made a lot of strong throws from shortstop. I was so excited I could barely sleep that night.

“He was my favorite player right from the start. He was my hero.”

Jose Mota, the Angels television analyst and Spanish language broadcaster, remembers as a child having a conversation about Jim Fregosi in the 1960s. Jose is the son of former Dodger Manny Mota, who, like Fregosi, wore No. 11. Jose and his brother Andy pointed out that there was another No. 11 across town.

“When we talked with my dad about the Angels, he told us about the other No. 11,” Mota said. “My dad had so much respect for the way Jim Fregosi played the game.”

On Twitter Friday, Mota called Fregosi a “true and pure Angel.”

Rick Reichardt, Fregosi’s teammate from 1964-70, said in an email that Fregosi was a “tuff cookie … Competed … Cut no slack with the young turks.”

Reichardt said Fregosi’s personality in the clubhouse was a little prickly, “which may have grated his employers and (may have been) a factor in his having played for and managed so many teams.”

Before the 1972 season, Fregosi was traded to the Mets, cracking kids’ hearts all over Orange County.

“I was torn apart when he got traded to the Mets,” Matthews said. “But we got Nolan Ryan for him, so I kind of got over that.”

Fregosi, like a conquering hero, returned to the Angels in 1978 as the manager. The Angels finished second that year, then won the club’s first division title in 1979.

Phil Krikorian, who grew up in Placentia, was given a Jim Fregosi baseball card by a friend across the street in the mid-1960s. Krikorian went to the stadium and got Fregosi’s autograph on the card. “To Phil, Good luck. Jim Fregosi.”

“He talked to me for five minutes,” Krikorian said. “From that point on, he was my guy. I still have that card.”

More than four decades later, Kirkorian took his sons to meet Fregosi at an all-star autograph session. They waited 90 minutes in line. And when he finally got to the front, Krikorian got to tell Fregosi, “You were my childhood hero.”

“It was worth it,” Krikorian said. “It was a full-circle thing for me.

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